At the Chowdhury Lab, we ask a deceptively simple question: how do bacteria know when to attack, and when to hide?
We explore how gut-dwelling pathogens like Shigella flexneri read chemical signals from the
host environment to decide whether to turn on — or turn off — their virulence
genes.
Our goal is to decode the molecular language spoken between microbes and their host,
and to use this knowledge to uncover new ways of stopping infections without killing bacteria—an
approach that can sidestep antibiotic resistance.
We explore how naturally occurring fatty acids in the human gut might influence bacterial virulence by interacting with key regulatory proteins. Understanding this interaction will reveal how environmental signals help pathogens switch between offensive and defensive modes, shedding light on new strategies for controlling infections.
By mapping how fatty acids might bind to the virulence regulatory proteins, we uncover the structural principles behind environmental regulation of gene expression. These insights are expected to inform future drug development efforts targeting the molecular switches that bacteria use to control their pathogenicity.
We investigate how environmental cues, such as fatty acids, could influence bacterial gene expression through interactions with transcriptional regulators. We aim to understand how these signals may coordinate virulence and metabolic functions, revealing potential points of intervention to prevent disease without harming beneficial microbes.
We explore how pathogens rewire their metabolism to survive in the inflamed environment of the gut during infection. The goal is to identify metabolic strategies that bacteria might use under stress and to uncover potential vulnerabilities that could lead to the development of novel, non-antibiotic therapies.
